Modern Comfort Food —

Carrot Cake with Pecan Coconut Frosting

Do readers ever wonder how food bloggers develop the recipes they publish? In my case, new recipe ideas sometimes come in a flash of inspiration and work out exactly as envisioned on the first try or after a couple rounds of experimentation. And sometimes they don’t work out at all. [...]

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Mom’s Hot “German” Potato Salad

Let me make a confession. I’m not very good at following recipes. On the rare occasion when I actually have a recipe in front of me while cooking, I feel compelled to tinker with it by adding a pinch of this or a splash of that. Or I transform it [...]

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Chicken Breasts Caprese with Ham

Autumn is rumored to have arrived in the northern hemisphere, but I’ve seen no sign of it yet at my Florida home. Here the temperature still hovers in the upper 80s F., as it has done for months. Shorts and tank tops are still de rigueur. And quickly cooked dishes [...]

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Cream of Pea Soup with Ginger and Cilantro

I feel that I can almost chart my culinary life with pea soup. It was the first dish I learned to “cook” at age six, and, as with other North Americans of my vintage, it involved a can of Campbell’s Split Pea. Mastering that canned soup gave me confidence to [...]

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Simple, Decadent Chocolate Bourbon Tart

Years ago, when it was my turn to cook a holiday dinner for my extended family, I realized I’d gotten myself in over my head. In fit of poor planning, I’d settled on a menu involving a great deal of fussy preparation and last-minute tending that would stretch my cooking [...]

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Green Tomato Salsa Verde

September is a month when many home gardeners in the northern hemisphere start monitoring weather forecasts in earnest. Nighttime temperatures are dropping, but plenty of green tomatoes remain on the vine that will likely get zapped by cold weather in coming days or weeks. Pick them now, or hold off [...]

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Tomato, Corn, and Cheese Tart with Basil

I’ve just returned from vacation at my little cabin in the woods of our family’s organic farm, Yellow Branch Farm, in the mountains of western North Carolina. Real farm labor, as always, was busily underway throughout my stay there. Cows were milked, artisanal cheeses made, vegetable and fruit gardens tended, [...]

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Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers, 7-Layer Dip Style

Do you remember Tex-Mex 7-layer dip, the outrageously popular appetizer and party buffet table mainstay of the 1990s? I’ve certainly dunked more than my fair share of tortilla chips into that wonderful dip while attending other people’s parties. However, I’ve never actually served it at my own. This appetizer always [...]

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Fresh Zucchini Pickle, Asian Style

Do you have zucchinis (courgettes) growing in your garden now? Have you reached the panic stage yet about what to do with them all? Most home gardeners I know have a love-hate relationship with this vegetable. They love it because it’s both delicious and productive. And they hate it because, [...]

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Sangria Upside Down Cake

Each member of my family has a different notion of the perfect cake. My husband adores dark chocolate cake with matching buttercream frosting. My adult son favors banana cake with thick penuche icing. And my own longstanding preference is for unfrosted, not too sweet, fruit flavored cakes, such as the [...]

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